


Practice Makes Perfect

by millernumber1



Category: Frozen (2013), Lizzie Bennet Diaries, Wreck-It Ralph (2012)
Genre: Actual Disney Princess meets Figurative Disney Prince, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-02-02
Updated: 2014-10-29
Packaged: 2018-01-10 21:52:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,451
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1164960
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/millernumber1/pseuds/millernumber1
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Various and sundry drabbles (not literally, since I don't plan to keep myself to 100 words) to try and become better at fic.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Birds of a Feather

Jane Bennet didn't quite know what to make of this little man. He reminded her a bit of her cousin Collins, though not nearly as hairy. His blue cap and workman's uniform also set him apart from her friendly but not terribly practically gifted relative.  His demeanor, however, was charming.

"Good evening, ma'am," he said, the fainted hint of a drawl softening his voice with the sounds of honey and tea.

"Oh, hi, it's so nice to see you!" Jane said, and it was. He was smiling at her in such a friendly way, and his uniform was so nice and tidy and well tailored - it was very good to see someone paying attention to their attire that way. "I don't believe I've had the pleasure," she continued.

"My name is Fi...Felix, ma'am.  I'm just dropping by to relay my wife's thanks for the assist last Friday."

Jane searched her memory. Ah, yes, Friday was when Lydia wanted Jane and Lizzie to meet her knew crush, who was apparently a big 80s nostalgia guy. They met in an arcade, and surprisingly had a lot of fun. No whack-a-mole this time. Though there had been some awkwardness when Jane had stepped in to allow a young girl, she thought the name was Moppet? play a rather violent looking science fictiony game. Two older boys were insisting that they had the game all night, but Jane pointed to the sign which said clearly, "No reservations."  It had been awkward, but Jane was firm where she felt herself to be right. The girl was pleased, and Jane played a round of the game with her. It turned out to be a bit more fun than she'd thought, since the enemies were all robotic insects, and Jane was always up for the destruction of electronic nuisances.

Lydia had been quite jealous of her high score.

"Your wife?"

"Yes, she's in the military, and she appreciates a fellow woman with a sense of justice."

"Well, Mr. Felix, I am very glad to have been of assistance." She glanced back at the tray of cinnamon cookies she'd just made. "Would you like to step in for some tea?"

"No, thank you, ma'am.  It's most kind of you, but I must go. It's cream soda night at Tapper's, and that only happens once a year."

"That's too bad.  Another time, then. And your wife is welcome as well, of course."

"Have a wonderful evening, ma'am!"

As Jane watched the bobbing blue hat of Felix pass down the street (he certainly did have quite a...bouncy gait), Bing came up behind her with a puzzled look on his face.

"What is it, babe?" she asked.

"Nothing," he said, giving her a quick kiss on the cheek.  "It's just...that guy looks funnily familiar.  Must have been all that time Darcy and I spent on that 80s game with the hammer and apartment building. Doing the same thing that often sometimes plays tricks with my memory."

"I'm sure you'll remember it soon," Jane assured him, giving him a side-armed hug as she walked back to the kitchen to put her cookies away.

"Yeah, I'm sure you're right. You usually are."


	2. Five Times Hans Said "If only there was someone who loved you," and One Time He Didn't

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Frozen - some alternate universes

1.

"Oh, Anna, if only there was someone who loved you." Anna looked at Hans in disbelief. Suddenly, dozens of memories from the past few days clicked in her mind: Hans, pushing aside a woman as he came to dance with her; Hans, laughing with the Duke of Weselton at a slightly cruel jest; Hans, ordering extra wood sent to the royal chambers as she left to find Elsa; the look of anger in Hans' eyes as he talked about his brothers; and just a few minutes ago, Hans, looking almost coldly at her as she arrived at the castle, before it quickly disappeared beneath apparent concern.

"What a fool I've been," she whispers, echoing Elsa as the man she thought she loved outlines his scheme of usurpation.

Later, as she wrings her hand out from punching Hans into the water, she wonders why she didn't see it before. Elsa murmurs, "I understand, sister. After so long without someone demonstrating they loved you as much as you loved them, it's only natural to form a bond with the first friendly face. After all, the only other person around who might have a claim on your heart had almost frozen you out." As awful as the pun is, Anna still flings her arms around her sister's neck.

2.

As Anna raises her hands in a futile effort to stop Hans' blade, she notices that his eyes are blue. "Funny," she thinks as the ice transforms her body into a statue harder than diamond, "I thought they were brown..."

When she wakes up in her sister's arms, she notices that Hans is weeping.

"What's wrong," she asks after sufficient sisterly hugging had occurred.

"I am so ashamed," he says quietly, looking at his hands, bleeding slightly from the shards of his shattered sword.

Elsa comes up behind them. "Don't be, Prince Hans. When I was knocked unconscious, I attempted to defend myself, and shards of ices were flung all around the chandelier. One of them pierced your heart."

"But I wasn't freezing! I just let my ambitions take over what I knew was right! How can you forgive me!"

"I believe the ice has different effects on different people. On some, it merely affects them physically. On others, like you, it might affect their emotions, leaving them unable to counter their more selfish desires. Don't blame yourself, Hans."

Hans shakes his head. "I can't accept your forgiveness, Your Majesty. I must...I must return home. Anna," he can barely look at her, and quickly drops his eyes, "I am so, so sorry. I'm only glad that I am such a failure and you are not permanently hurt."

As he trudges off dejectedly to his own boat, Anna looks at Elsa quizzically. "Don't worry," her sister assures her, "I'll send someone along with him to assure his parents that he wasn't at fault."

3.

The kiss is warm, so warm to her cold lips. But she feels nothing in her heart, physically or emotionally. Hans looks surprised, then a little panicked. He kisses her again, a bit clumsily, and while it is still warm, they both know that it's not going to work. He looks dejected. "If only there was someone who loved you, Anna."

"I thought it was you," she says, despair almost as cold as the ice in her heart.

"I thought so too. But I guess it was just my ambition to be something other than youngest prince nudging me towards you."

"And my hunger for affection. It had been so long since I'd seen anyone new, and you were so kind..."

"I do like you, I just clearly don't love you. I'm sorry."

"That's okay," she shivers, and reaches her hand out for his. "Help me up. If I can't find true love, at least I want to make sure my sister is safe."

Later, when she thaws after blocking Weselton's goons from shooting Elsa, she notices him wringing his hand. "What's wrong?" she asks.

"I was holding your hand when we stepped in front of the arrows. Just got a bit pinched from being held by a statue." He smiles, hesitantly, and she smiles back.

"Well," Elsa say, "While it appears we don't have a wedding to plan, we do have a new friendship between kingdoms to celebrate. And since we clearly don't have a trade partner in Weselton anymore," she pronounces Weselton incorrectly and loudly, and giggles as the Duke begings shouting incoherently before the guards muffle him, "it looks like we may need a new trade delegate. The guards tell me you were quite good with supplies and distribution during the crisis. Are you interested in the position?"

"Your Majesties," he replies, bowing deeply, "It would be my honor."

4.

"Anna, if only I could love you. But I'm afraid...I cannot." His face is sad, and Anna doesn't feel so much a sense of loss, as relief. She had been feeling a bit odd ever since she met Kristoff, and was torn when she realized that she had to go through with her hasty engagement.

"I don't know exactly why, but I'm glad," she replies, and shivers. Suddenly, she hears rumbling, like an avalanche, over the whirling winds outside. Looking out the window, she sees a huge number of round stones rolling down the mountainside.

"Oh, no! The trolls," she exclaims.

They rush outside, Hans half-carrying her as her feet become more and more like carved blocks of ice.

When they finally make it to Elsa's position on the lake, she's surrounded by trolls. Kristoff is there, pushing and shoving, but the eldest troll's cracked and powerful voice carries about his desperate shouting. "She must be contained! The world is not safe from endless winter while she lives with this power!"

Horrified at what is about to happen, Hans and Anna push desperately to Elsa and thrown themselves to cover her on the ground as the eldest troll lifts his staff. The three huddle together as they hear strange whisps and lights play out behind them.

Suddenly, Anna feels warmer. She looks at her hands, no longer shaking desperately. "Wait," she cries, "What if she learned to control it, instead of hiding it?"

Elsa, realizing how close she had come to disaster, pulled herself together and added her voice to the plea. "Concealment doesn't work, because no matter what, I will always feel things." She squeezes Anna's hand. "Especially love for my dear sister," she whispers in Anna's ear.

As she does so, a tiny change occurs in the air. A slight warmth, quickly growing hot, and then something bursts above them, and the whole world starts thawing.

The trolls sit in awe, and the eldest lowers his staff.

"Guess true love comes in strange places," Hans says quietly, looking at Elsa. And Anna realizes that he's always looked that way at her sister.

5.

"I am engaged to the cousin of the crown of Corona! The Crown Princess will be there! It will endanger the marriage treaty!" Hans protests. Weselton looks unconcerned.

"If you do not assist me in...strengthening Weselton's hold on trade in this area, your parents will soon find themselves having...difficulty procuring necessary supplies."

They argue long into the night, but in the end, Hans is forced to surrender. He would woo the princess, and Arendelle would break off trade relations with his own kingdom when the deception was revealed.

It's a huge relief to confess everything to Anna after they save Elsa from a falling mast, her frozen body holding up the massive pole until a team is able to push it to the side and she thaws out. "It's okay," she says cheerfully, looking warmly past him to the rather bedraggled ice selling boy who had run up in the confusion, and whose reindeer had been instrumental in removing the mast.

His fiancee's cousin and her husband come up behind him. "Wellllll," the prince consort says in that blastedly charming voice of his, "We were wondering why you seemed so friendly with the princess there."

"But I knew it was a misunderstanding. I know your dream is always to live happily ever after with my cousin," the princess chirps.

"Yes," Hans said, a great weight lifting from his heart. "Yes, it is."

1.

The kiss warms Anna all the way to her toes. She feels the ice in her heart melting, a strange but not unpleasant liquid sensation, and the last of her doubts wash away in the brown of his eyes as she pulls back.

"If only there was a way to tell you how much I love you," Hans says, and she laughs.

"Let's go save my sister!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, clearly, I might have some lingering problems with the way Hans' reveal was handled. These were some ideas I had about what might have made me happier at the end of the film. Really only one and two are things I think might have worked in the movie, though three seems nice to me.


	3. Four Minutes Till Midnight

"So, what are we gonna do?"

"I dunno. What do you wanna do?"

"Well, we could sweep and mop the floors, do laundry, read two or three books..."

"Hold up, there! Not everyone can read as quickly as you. Let alone clean."

"Well, if you've read the book about 400 times before, it doesn't take much time.  The words sort of slide into your head much more quickly."

"Well, if we were in the library, I'd say go for it.  Though I feel like there might be a few more books you have to choose from now."

"Oh, yes! The other day, I found a book about the history of political change in mining towns spurred by ancient marriage rituals."

"Only you..."

"It was amazing!"

"So are you."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a bit more dialogue practice. Bonus points for recognizing the characters referenced and the book mentioned. :)


	4. Ha Ha, Nothing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nothing?

Sometimes, I wonder if lying to save someone else's dignity is wrong.

For instance, just before the Ultron crisis, there was that whole hammer lifting contest. Tony, of course, started it. When his own (not inconsiderable, mind you) arm failed to budge it, and his rocket-assisted gauntlet, and the (slightly unfair, I thought) team effort with Rhodey failed, he, of course, wanted everyone else to have a go. Thor, of course, was loving it.

As Tony's favorite witcushion, the duty fell on me next. I strained and strove and generally did things that start with "s" and mean "worked really hard," and when I didn't lift it, Thor laughed cheerfully and roared, "Nothing!"

I overheard Nat talking to Bruce and Maria, and almost wished I had her confidence.

After all, it's tricky having to pretend to pull when you are in fact pushing.

It all started a few days before, when Thor was spending time (I believe he called it "being honored with the presence of") with Jane and Darcy. He'd left Mjolnir to the side of a door, which blocked it when Tony, Bruce, and I were trying to move some their science stuff. They tried explaining it to me.

I'm fairly certain it worked on electricity.

Anyway, it was much too large to fit through one door, so Tony (making a lot of noise, of course), yelled at me to open the other half of the door. I did, but something was blocking it. I reached around and moved it slightly to the side, and the door opened without protest. And when it did, I saw it.

Hmm, I thought to myself.

I quickly moved it all the way to the side of the room, so Tony and Bruce wouldn't see.

So that night, I accidentally bumped the hammer a bit when I was managing the tricky task of looking like I was pulling mightly upwards, while in fact pushing downwards.

Ah, well. One of these days, perhaps, I'll tell them.

Pretty sure Nat knows already, though.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Watching the trailer, I was amused that Thor was overly defensive when Cap budged the hammer. After reading some tweets about it, though, I was even more convinced that there's no reason Cap couldn't lift the hammer. But if that's the case, then...


End file.
